The Voice of America (U.S. TV series)
The Voice of America is an American reality television singing competition broadcast on NBC. The concept of the series is to find new singing talent (solos only) contested by aspiring singers, age 15 or over, drawn from public auditions in five different cities named Regionals. The winner is determined by television viewers voting by telephone, Internet, SMS text, and iTunes Store purchases of the audio-recorded artists' vocal performances. They receive US$1,000,000 and a "record deal" with Republic Records for winning the competition. Selection process and format The cities of New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, and Denver are where the auditions will take place. They are called Regionals. People within their specified regional will head to one of these 5 cities and sing through three rounds. The first round begins with Room Auditions. For these, you will sing along with nine other strangers in order to impress two producers who will send through to the second round the singers with the best talent. The second round entails singing one song in front of a panel of three celebrity judges, and then they will vote for whether or not you deserve to move on to Round 3 of the Regional Auditions. Singers with at least two votes from the celebrity judges will get the opportunity to advance on to Round 3. The third and final round has singers going up in front of an audience of 10,000 people. The celebrity judges are also there, and will be making the final decision. After the third round, the judges will announce the Top 12 artists from that regional. Those 12 artists will move on to the Live Regionals. In the Live Regionals, singers will be narrowed down by two (and in the last week, 1) artist(s) each week until only three remain in the competition. Rules for voting include: 10 votes per person, and you can only vote within your region, you cannot decide who moves on in different Live Regionals. The Top 3 from each regional are then placed in a Top 15 and will sing for America's votes each week, with one artist being eliminated each time until the Final Two, in which were America will declare a winner. Voting systems In a first for a music competition series, NBC and Republic Records offered fans of the show the ability to vote for their favorite artists by purchasing the studio versions of the songs that they perform on the live show each week via the iTunes Store. Alternative methods of voting can be done through toll-free phone calls, text messaging (provided by Sprint), the show's app, and through online votes via NBC.com and Facebook. Each method is limited to ten votes per user. Voting lasts until noon EST the next day. Judges and hosts Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic became the first confirmed celebrity judge, followed by Madonna, and Justin Timberlake. Ryan Seacrest currently is the host of the series. Series overview Artist from the New York region Artist from the Los Angeles region Artist from the Dallas region Artist from the Miami region Artist from the Denver region Season synopses Names in bold type indicate the winner of the season. Season 1 Main article: The Voice of America (Season 1) Each region was represented by three artists: ;New York Region ;*Jason Perez ;*Hope Matthews ;*Tasha Crampton ;Los Angeles Region ;*Tiana King ;*David Robinson ;*April Taylor ;Dallas Region ;*Wes Jackson ;*Jess McBride ;*Alli Jackson ;Miami Region ;*Andrew Cisneros ;*Kayla Colangelo ;*Chris McLendon ;Denver Region ;*Ryan Jones ;*Christa Smith ;*Noah Fuentes Season 2 Main article: The Voice of America (Season 2) Each region was represented by three artists: ;New York Region ;*Brett Montgomery ;*Cassy Crowley ;*Erin Beckham ;Los Angeles Region ;*Tyson Roldan ;*Luke Allen ;*Emily Roush ;Dallas Region ;*Alec Dortch ;*Bria Matthews ;*Kyle Henry ;Miami Region ;*Katelyn Trevino ;*Carly Rivera ;*Ian Matheny ;Denver Region ;*Justin Edwards ;*Jeff Kaufman ;*Abbey Simone Season 3 Main article: The Voice of America (Season 3) Each region was represented by three artists: ;New York Region ;*Bryant Selby ;*Jess Child ;*Walden ;Los Angeles Region ;*Amir Edgemon ;*Justin McClaskey ;*Tony Collins ;Dallas Region ;*Brandon Calderon ;*Hardin Morrissey ;*Viva Mendez ;Miami Region ;*Kaitlin Rahim ;*Molly McLaughlin ;*Tyler Sena ;Denver Region ;*Brendan Gilkey ;*Malika Dam ;*Sam Longfellow